DRI’s one-day conference with a focus on cyber resilience is just a few weeks away. We are excited to announce the speaker lineup for the Oct. 6 event, hosted by NYU’s Center for Global Affairs at the Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square S!

Register and grab some coffee at 8:30 a.m. ET and then attend expert-led presentations on important resilience issues, including risk trends and predictions, polycrisis response, cybersecurity, emerging technology, and more. Between these in-depth morning and afternoon sessions, lunch will be provided. The event will be capped off by a networking reception — hosted by our exclusive sponsor Fusion Risk Management — following the closing session.

Check out the sessions and speakers below — and share the event on social media with the hashtag #DRIxNYU2023!

We believe in making these events affordable and accessible to everyone in our community. Attendance will require a nominal fee of $100.00 and be free to select NYU students from specifically related fields and faculty. Additionally, a donation will be made from the DRI Foundation supporting a local charity. DRI Certified Professionals will earn 8 CEAPs for attending.

Thanks to our exclusive sponsor, Fusion Risk Management!

Conference Program

8:30 a.m. – Registration and Breakfast

9:00 a.m. – Welcome Remarks; Global Trends in Risk and Resilience
Chloe Demrovsky, CBCV, DRI President and CEO

What are the top risks that worry resilience professionals as we emerge into a post-pandemic world? This session will open the event with an overview of how we, as members of this exciting and evolving profession, prioritize and respond to some of our biggest challenges. Based on DRI’s annual survey of nearly 500 professionals across all industries and sectors, our research shows a variety of major issues such as cyberattacks, natural disasters and economic uncertainty. With so many risks at play, DRI’s President and CEO Chloe Demrovsky will provide guidance on how we can build a more resilient future together.

Chloe Demrovsky is a globally recognized, award-winning expert in risk and resilience and serves as the youngest and first female President and CEO of Disaster Recovery Institute International, the leading nonprofit helping organizations to prepare for and recover from disasters and that serves 20,000+ certified resilience professionals in 110+ countries and at 95% of Fortune 100 companies. She is a senior Forbes contributor, has appeared on CBS News, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox, Bloomberg, Sky News and Cheddar, and has served as a source for The Associated Press, BBC, USA Today, The Financial Times, ABC News, and others. She has presented at dozens of events across five continents and briefed government bodies including the US Congress, the European Commission, and the UN. She is an adjunct professor and the first-ever Executive in Residence at NYU SPS Center for Global Affairs, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Crain’s New York 2023 Notable Leader in Sustainability, a US-Japan Foundation Scott M. Johnson Fellow, a French-American Foundation 2019-22 Young Leader, a British-American Project Fellow, and a Board Director for United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) ARISE, DRI Foundation, Bard College at Simon’s Rock Board (Vice-Chair), the French-American Foundation and Plastic Omnium. She speaks four languages, has traveled to 50+ countries and lives in New York with her husband and son.

9:30 a.m. – Emergency Management and Business Continuity in a Polycrisis World
Kelly McKinney, CBCP, Assistant Vice President of Emergency Management and Enterprise Resilience, NYU Langone Health

We live in a post-modern polycrisis world. Our organizations – governments, public and private sector organizations, hospitals, universities – are besieged by a multitude of human-caused, natural and technological risks. Given this, what is the role of the emergency management and business continuity professionals? Our organizations need us to bring order to the chaos. But are we ready to do that?

As the former Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Office of Emergency Management and Chief Disaster Officer for the American Red Cross in Greater New York, Kelly McKinney has had a leadership role in every major disaster in New York City for more than 20 years, from the 9/11 attacks to Superstorm Sandy to Covid-19.

He teaches crisis management at NYU and was recently appointed to FEMA’s National Advisory Council. Nationally known for his writing and speaking on the principles and practice of disaster management, he is the author of “Moment of Truth, the Nature of Catastrophes and How to Prepare for Them.”

He is a professional engineer with a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Kansas and an MPA from Columbia University in the City of New York.

10:15 a.m. – Navigating Tomorrow’s Uncertainties: The Future of Risk In The Age of Technological Advancements
Melanie Subin, Managing Director, Future Today Institute

Join us for an insightful presentation from Melanie Subin, Managing Director of Future Today Institute. In this discussion, Subin will delve into the fascinating landscape of risk in an era of ever-evolving technological sophistication. As we stand at the intersection of innovation and uncertainty, this discussion will explore how cutting-edge technologies like generative AI and quantum cryptography are fundamentally reshaping risk across a wide variety of industries.

Melanie Subin is Managing Director at Future Today Institute. She oversees consulting operations and client engagement and leads the Public Services practice (including education, government, and nonprofits) and Metaverse/Web3 practice.

Before joining FTI, Subin served as Senior Managing Director of Emerging Insights at Travelers Insurance, leading teams in insights and foresight engagements across the enterprise. She specializes in strategic transformation, quantitative and qualitative research, and scenario development. She has deep expertise in identifying and assessing risk across industry sectors.

Subin has spent years assessing the impact of major external forces such as climate change, increasing technological sophistication, changing consumer and business preferences, and rising connectivity on the evolution and transformation of industries and markets across the globe. She also serves as a subject matter expert on the metaverse, exploring how metaverse technologies could impact businesses, their operations, and their risks.

Subin also serves as a coach and guest lecturer in the strategic foresight class offered at New York University’s Stern School of Business. She has a degree in Finance from Central Connecticut State University and a FinTech Certification from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is based in the NYC metro area.

11:00 a.m. – Morning Break

11:15 a.m. – Merging Cyber Resilience and Cybersecurity to Improve Response and Recovery
Rouz Hashemi, CCRP, Senior Manager – Cyber Attack Resilience, Accenture

A proper cyber resilience approach has always required business and technology stakeholders to interact, decide, and set appropriate risk tolerance. But with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) adding the term “govern” to its framework, what is the opportunity for change and improvement? In this session, we will discuss how merging cyber resilience and cybersecurity under the NIST framework will enable organizations to be better prepared for and better able to respond to and recover from cyberattacks in a more tangible manner.

Rouz Hashemi is a DRI Cyber Resilience Instructor as well as a Senior Manager at Accenture leading the Cyber Attack Resilience practice. He specializes in secure architecture, cyber resilience, ransomware resilience, and risk management. Hashemi has over 10 years’ experience working in the risk management, physical/asset security, business continuity, cloud operations, and crisis management spaces across a multitude of industries such as healthcare, utilities, finance, pharmaceuticals, and information technology. Hashemi holds a Bachelors of Science in Biology from George Mason University, a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Masters in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also a DRI-Certified Cyber Resilience Professional (CCRP), a DRI-Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) as well as Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He holds the SABSA Chartered Security Architect – Foundation Certificate.

11:45 a.m. – Cyber Resiliency in the DNA: Forging a Secure and Resilient Culture for the Digital Age (Sponsor Session: Fusion Risk Management)
Safi Raza, Senior Director of Cyber Security, Fusion Risk Management

In this session, we will explore how to navigate the complex landscape of cybersecurity, focusing on the human element. We’ll showcase the power of nurturing a security-conscious workforce through compelling success stories and practical insights. Key highlights of this presentation include:
Understanding the pivotal role of a cybersecurity-focused culture, characterized by resiliency, in safeguarding your organization:

• Proven strategies for cultivating a mindset of resilience in every member of your team, from top executives to front-line staff
• A deep dive into real-world cases where a security-driven and resilient culture has not only defended against cyber threats but thrived amidst challenges, and
• Insights into building a culture that not only protects against cyber threats but adapts, endures, and emerges stronger in the face of adversity.

Safi Raza, a seasoned cybersecurity professional, is Senior Director of Cyber Security at Fusion Risk Management. He is dedicated to fortifying digital landscapes. With a career spanning 18 years in the industry, he specializes in protecting organizations from evolving cyber threats. Raza’s experience includes various information security domains, where he’s played a pivotal role in ensuring digital security and compliance. He’s committed to building cyber-resilient systems and teams, contributing to organizations’ defenses in our ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.

12:15 p.m. – Lunch Reception

1:15 p.m. – Panel Discussion: Emerging Technology – Opportunities and Threats
Moderator:
Dr. Christopher Ankersen, Clinical Professor and Interim Academic Director of the MS in Global Security, Conflict, and Cybercrime, NYU SPS Center for Global Affairs

Panelists:
Zhanna L. Malekos Smith, Visiting Fellow, U.S. Global Engagement Initiative (USGE)
Chadwick Shroy, Cyber Analyst, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Region 2
Clayton “CJ” Dixon, Senior Advisor and Deputy Director for Emerging Technology Policy, Office of Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk, and Resilience, Department of Homeland Security
Melanie Stavenow, Intelligence Analyst, National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA)

Innovation is championed as a solution to a range of public policy problems, from climate change to food security to education. However, history is replete with examples of new technologies delivering a range of outcomes, not all of them positive. The internal combustion engine, for example, increased the scale and range of human activity, freeing millions of people from the drudgery of manual labor. At the same time, though, it generated environmental damage, not to mention social and political displacement, on an unprecedented scale. Will our new technological advancements, likewise, be ‘double-edged’ swords

This panel discussion will explore the impact of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and blockchain, on critical infrastructure, transnational security, and disinformation. The panelists will discuss the potential benefits and risks of these technologies, as well as the challenges of mitigating their negative impacts.

Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Christopher Ankersen worked at the United Nations from 2005 to 2017. He held a number of posts, including that of Security Advisor for the United Nations system in Thailand, as well as other appointments at the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna; and at the Department of Safety and Security in New York. He has taught at the LSE, the London Centre for International Relations, King’s College London, Carleton University, the Royal Military College of Canada, the Harvard Extension School, the University of Victoria, and the University of Pireas in Athens, Greece. He has lectured at staff colleges in Canada, Australia, and Denmark.

Currently, Dr. Ankersen is a Research Fellow at the Canadian Defence Associations Institute; Senior Research Fellow at the German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG), Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, Bangkok; and Honourary Fellow at the Policy Insights Forum.

Zhanna Malekos Smith is a Visiting Fellow with the Carnegie Council, Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and a fellow with the Army Cyber Institute at West Point.

Her expertise spans cybersecurity, aerospace security, emerging technologies, and international security. Malekos Smith has appeared on CNN, NBC, and her commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Politico, Nature, Physics Today, and elsewhere.

A former captain and attorney in the Air Force’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, she received her commission from the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a cross-registered student and participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. She holds a BA in Russian and international relations from Wellesley College, an MA and associateship of King’s College from King’s College London, Department of War Studies, and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

Malekos Smith has held fellowships with the Madeleine K. Albright Institute for Global Affairs, the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, Duke University Law School, and Stanford University’s U.S.-Russia Forum. She is a volunteer consultant for Hostage US, a nonprofit that supports the families of Americans taken hostage abroad and hostages when they return home.

Chadwick Shroy serves as the Cyber Analyst for the Integrated Operations Division, CISA Region 2.

He has 10 years of active-duty military experience as a Naval Intelligence Officer with assignments that span the globe. Over the course of his Naval career, he has worked to support tactical aviation, bilateral information sharing, operational intelligence, and theater-level intelligence support. He currently serves as a Reservist in support of the DIA Defense Counter Terrorism Center – East.

He possesses a Bachelor of Science from the Naval Academy with a minor in Russian and a Master of Science of Global Security, Conflict, and Cybercrime from New York University.

Clayton “CJ” Dixon is Senior Advisor and Deputy Director for Emerging Technology Policy in the Office of Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk, and Resilience at the Department of Homeland Security. His policy portfolio includes emerging technologies such as quantum technology, artificial intelligence, the bioeconomy, and Internet-of-Things devices. Dixon was also a Senior Advisor at New York City Cyber Command where he helped develop and implement citywide cybersecurity policies to protect New Yorkers. In a previous life, he served as a U.S. Army Psychological Operations Officer countering violent extremist propaganda in West Africa.

Melanie Stavenow is a New York-based intelligence analyst with a background in strategic physical security and fare policy compliance management. As the first non-American intelligence analyst at the National Cyber-Forensics Training Alliance (NCFTA), Melanie helps federal law enforcement and private organisations manage cyber threats through intelligence collection, sharing, and analysis. She is a CGA alumni and holds a MS in Global Security, Conflict, and Cybercrime from NYU SPS, specializing in Global Risk.

2:15 p.m. – Collaborative Cyber Incident Response at NYC Cyber Command
Jonathan Rotta, Project Manager, Agency Incident Response Readiness, NYC OTI Cyber Command Threat Management Division

This session will provide a high-level overview of cyber incident response at NYC Cyber Command, a division with NYC’s Office of Technology and Innovation. In this session, Jonathan Rotta (Project Manager, Agency Incident Response Readiness) will provide a look at the NYC Cyber Command organizational background, mission, and cyber incident management process enacted to effectively respond to active cyber incidents in the NYC environment. Learn about this organization’s approach to preparing covered entities for conducting shared-responsibility incident response.

Jonathan Rotta has worked for the City of New York for 10 years. He spent 7+ years with NYC Emergency Management working in various roles including External Communications; Training, Exercises, and Evaluation; and Urban Search and Rescue. He has also held numerous roles within the organization’s Emergency Operations Center on-call teams, including Planning Section Chief.

Rotta has spent the last two+ years at NYC Cyber Command, managing the organization’s COOP program. He currently serves as a Project Manager with the Agency Incident Response Readiness (AIRR) program and works with partner agencies to help prepare them to conduct cyber incident response in collaboration with the NYC Cyber Command Security Operations Center.

3:00 p.m. – Afternoon Break

3:15 p.m. – A United Nations Perspective on Cyber Risk and Resilience
Nehali Anupriya, Program Management Officer, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Join UNDRR’s Nehali Anupriya for a unique perspective on cyber risk governance challenges, including the potential risks to international stability posed by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, and how we can work together through international cooperation to achieve resilience.

Nehali Anupriya is a Program Management Officer with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), based in New York. Her portfolio includes risks arising from artificial intelligence and rapid technological change, and achieving the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in least developed countries, and small island developing states.

While at the UNDRR, she organized the high-level meeting of the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, coordinated UNDRR’s engagement in the Fifth International Conference for Least Developed Countries, and is now leading UNDRR’s engagement in the process towards a Global Digital Compact.

Prior to joining UNDRR, Anupriya developed the pilot of the Artificial Intelligence Readiness Assessment with the UN Development Program. With Women+ In Climate Tech, she developed a gender and social equity lens for the Taskforce for Climate-Related Financing Risk Disclosure. She also served three successive Presidents of the General Assembly as an adviser on sustainable development, climate action, plastic pollution and oceans. In this capacity, she was responsible for several initiatives including the Beat Plastic Pollution Campaign which led to the banning of single use plastics in UNHQ in New York, the first Biodiversity Summit, and the establishment of a Board of Advisers on Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States. Anupriya began her career with the Fiji High Commission in India and then with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Fiji where she supported the development of the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific and the Pacific Resilience Facility.

Anupriya holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, Queens’ College and a BA (Hons) in Politics and International Relations from the University of Exeter. She is a national of Fiji and the United Kingdom by way of Indian origin, and speaks English, French, and Hindi. In her free time, she scuba dives, makes ceramic pottery and plays the sitar.

4:00 p.m. – Panel Discussion: Resilience Across Industries
Moderator:
Karina de Allicon, CBCP, CRMP, Director of Business Continuity Governance, Nike

Panelists:
Greg Pinchbeck, CFCP
AnneMarie Staley, CBCP, Head of BCP Americas, Credit Agricole CIB
Alexandra Shaheen, Director of Crisis & Incident Management, New York Times
Melody Wen, ABCP, Crisis Management, an aerospace manufacturing company

Wrap up our afternoon with a lively panel discussion of resilience in a variety of industries. With representatives from financial services, tech, and manufacturing, this diverse group will share insights into how various aspects of resilience — including cyber threats, disaster recovery, and business continuity management — present unique challenges in their respective sectors.

Karina de Allicon, CBCP, CRMP, is a Fulbright Scholar and a Director of Business Continuity Governance at Nike with over ten years of experience in the field of Business Continuity Management (BCM). She has designed and implemented BCM Programs from the ground up for the financial, life sciences, and entertainment industry (20th Century Fox) and has led global, cross-functional teams through incident management efforts to effectively respond to and recover from business disruptive events.

De Allicon is a Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP), Certified Risk Management Professional (CRMP), ISO 22301 Certified Business Continuity Lead Auditor (CBCLA), and a FEMA Certified HSEEP Exercise Designer. She is a member of DRI’s Women in Business Continuity Management Committee as well as a published author in peer-reviewed journals and a featured guest speaker in Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) and the Governor’s Annual Emergency & Homeland Security Conference in Wisconsin.

De Allicon’s strong commitment to cultivating physical and mental well-being has inspired her to become a UCLA-Certified Mindfulness Educator (TMF) and find creative ways to “connect the dots” between mindfulness and BCM. She has leveraged her academic background and experience in the field to train executives and recovery teams on how to leverage mindfulness to optimize incident management while lowering stress and increasing cognitive functioning and effective decision-making. De Allicon has partnered with DRI to develop “Mindfulness Practices to Improve Incident Management”, the first course of its kind in the space that trains practitioners on how to optimize incident response by leveraging mindfulness tools.

Greg Pinchbeck, CFCP, is a senior resilience professional currently heading enterprise resilience at a global technology company where he manages the Crisis Management, Technology and Business Resiliency teams. Previously, he held similar global resiliency and Third Party risk roles for Consumer Banking at Citigroup, Treasury & Security Services at JPMorgan Chase and the Americas for the Royal Bank of Scotland. Greg resides in Wilton, CT and is a Board member of both the USA Swimming Foundation and the Riverbrook Regional YMCA.

AnneMarie Staley, CBCP, is currently Head of BCP Americas, Credit Agricole CIB. Prior to this position, she was the Global Business Continuity Manager for AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., a multinational property and casualty insurer specializing in coverage for small to mid-sized businesses. With extensive underwriting experience, AmTrust has earned a reputation as an innovative, technology-driven provider of insurance products. AmTrust is listed on the NASDAQ global market under the symbol AFSI.

Prior to AmTrust, Staley was the Managing Director for Global Business Continuity Management at the New York Stock Exchange between 2000 and 2014. Due in part to her innovative management of BCM at the New York Stock Exchange, the NYSE received the NYC OEM Private Partner in Preparedness Award. Her prior fields of business experience include Law, Investment Banking and Philanthropy.

Staley is Chair of the DRI Foundation; the philanthropic arm of DRI International, and Chair of the DRI Awards of Excellence Program, which honors and bestows awards to business continuity professionals and organizations each year at the annual DRI Conference.

Industry memberships include BCP Steering Committee for SIFMA (Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association); Contingency Planning Exchange (CPE); and Association for Contingency Planners (ACP), Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC), Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and others. She is ITIL Foundation certified and has been a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) through DRI since 2004 and is an MBCI through the Business Continuity Institute. She resides in Edison, NJ with her husband Kevin.

Alexandra Shaheen is the Director of Crisis & Incident Management at The New York Times and leads enterprise business continuity and incident management programming. Her roots in large-scale technical program management have enabled her to create data-driven, risk-based scalable programs.

At NYT, she led the technology organization’s 2020 Election Readiness effort, where she was responsible for assessing the organization’s technical and operational resilience and implementing strategic solutions ahead of historic traffic levels. Prior to work in resilience and business continuity, Shaheen has worked with engineering teams to develop and launch numerous critical products and platforms, with a varied portfolio ranging from user-facing content management systems to developer tooling and infrastructure.

Melody Wen, ABCP, currently leads Global Security’s Crisis Management Program at a Fortune 100 aerospace manufacturer. She leads initiatives to safeguard the company’s global critical assets – people, sites, products, operations, and reputation.

Prior, Wen was with Control Risks supporting a large technology company with the Americas Crisis Management program. She also has experience with JPMorgan Chase’s Asset & Wealth Management division in building out the global crisis management pillar which was instrumental during the beginning of the Covid pandemic. She has additional global crisis management, emergency management, and business continuity experience in the insurance industry at Chubb Insurance, healthcare at Mount Sinai Health System, media at Time Inc., and higher education industries through George Washington University.

Wen started her career with an internship at FEMA and later the Port Authority of NY & NJ’s Aviation Security & Technology Department. She found her passion for the field after volunteering with the American Red Cross for years preparing and helping New Yorkers through crises. She’s an advocate for resiliency programs to reflect the communities, customers, and clients that these programs serve. As an Asian-American woman in the field, Melody is especially passionate about helping women break into the field, flourishing as a leader, and building bridges to help the next generation of resiliency professionals.

Wen has a Master of Public Administration degree specializing in Emergency Management from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She holds multiple business continuity and crisis management leadership related certifications.

4:45 p.m. – Closing Remarks

5:00 p.m. – Cocktail Networking Reception